Wells Fargo Finances Solar Farm

SunEdison LLC, a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR), will get financing for an 11.3-megawatt solar project from Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). The amount of the financing was not specified.

The Chaparral Solar Project is located in New Mexico near El Paso, Texas, and the power will be sold to El Paso Electric Company (NYSE: EE) under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

When it’s completed, the solar farm will provide enough electricity for 2,400 homes annually and will lower CO2 emissions by 38 million pounds a year. The press release also notes an advantage for solar over natural gas:

The solar facility also saves more than 4.5 million gallons of water per year that would have otherwise been consumed if the electricity were generated by a natural gas combined cycle power plant.

That’s about 14 acre-feet of water, or enough to serve about 65 homes for a year, a significant amount in the parched American Southwest.

MEMC’s shares are down about 2% today at $2.38 in a 52-week range of $1.44 to $6.80.